Everything Burns
by Drag00n
Summary: A troubled Johnny Storm runs into a young boy who may be the answer to a lot of questions. But will Johnny save the boy, or vice versa? Some questions were never supposed to be answered...
1. Rain and blood

Everything Burns

Johnny Storm let out a pained sigh, and stared out of the apartment window as rain pounded against the glass, it slid down the window and tricked to the depths below. Thunder boomed across the sky and lightning cracked across the sky, briefly lighting up the dim apartment.

A Storm watched a storm.

The Human Torch pulled his gaze away from the window, a puzzled and slightly annoyed expression on his handsome features. Reed, Susie and Johnny had betrayed him. How dare they accuse him of being a reckless, thoughtless, arrogant member of the team! Johnny had thought that after the 'Dr. Doom' fiasco, that the team were solid. That they were indeed, a team.

But no, apparently Johnny had 'endangered citizens' a short while after. That he had almost killed a man. Killed him my ass! If it wasn't for Johnny, the man would've fallen to his death if The Human Torch hadn't intervened. If it wasn't for him 'flaming on' and catching the guy. How the hell could he have known that the heat he caused the man to almost burn alive.

How could he have been so stupid?

Stupid, stupid, Johnny Storm. That's what he was, a foolish young man that didn't' deserve what he had. He had never worked for anything.

Johnny pulled a coat over his shoulders and disappeared out of the apartment.

The acrid stench of something burning had begun to flood the apartment. On the floor, by the window, Johnny Storm's Fantastic Four suit had been set ablaze.

- - -

The boy stumbled out of the alleyway, thick crimson liquid dribbling from his busted lip; he wiped the blood away with the back of his hand, grimacing as he did so. Rain clung to his exposed skin, chilling his nerves, and luckily the pain from his wounds. The short sleeved, dirty white tee-shirt didn't combat the icy cold though, although he didn't have much else. The rain was almost a god send though, it washed away the faint smell of sweat and the more heavy stench of blood from him though. The water plastered his brown hair to his head, and his blue eyes started aimlessly at the ground beneath him. With a groan, he fell forward, hitting the floor with a dull _thump._

The next thing he knew, he was being lifted up. The boy's eyes slowly flickered open, he moaned painfully as his eyes focused.

"Hey, are you okay?"

The fifteen year old bolted, squirming out of the man's grasp and shrinking back against the soaked wall behind him.

"Hey, no, chill out, kid," The man, Johnny, said slowly, softly. "What's your name?"

"..C-Chris," Chris said quietly, barely audible over the storm.

"Well, Chris, that was quite a nasty fall you had there," Johnny said gently. "You've busted your lip pretty badly…"

"…I didn't hurt myself from falling," Chris replied, whispered.

Johnny's eyes flashed in apparent victory, but unlike his usual self, he didn't press on the issue any more.

"..You look cold, here, take this," Johnny said, pulling his sodden jacket off and laying it over the boy's shoulders, frowning slightly as he flinched.

"Come on, let me take you someplace warm."

Chris looked up at Johnny and for once in his life, he accepted someone's help.

_To be continued. _


	2. A broken Storm

Everything Burns

Chapter 2

_Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz_

The boy, Chris, looked up at the garish, yellow neon sign.

"McDonalds?" he asked quizzically, raising one eyebrow slightly.

Johnny suppressed a chuckle at the boy's unfamiliarity with the establishment. "Yes, McDonalds. It's the nearest place without me having to shell out a butt load of cash for a fancy meal," he said with a broad smirk.

"I-I'm not hungry," Chris mumbled, staring down at the concrete floor, watching the rain water wash over his scruffy trainers.

Johnny's eyes narrowed slightly. "Either way, it'll be warm. Go on, get inside."  
Chris was about to protest, but the look in Johnny's eyes told him otherwise. He pushed the large doors open and shuffled into the –oh so warm- building. Still staring at his trainers with an awkward and distinctly nervous air.

Johnny followed him closely, looking at him with deep thought.

_He was obviously in trouble, _he thought, _and wasn't that what the-. What Johnny was about now? Helping people. And he obviously needs help. Those wounds didn't come from nowhere._

Chris slid onto a plastic seat, pulling Johnny's jacket tighter around him, despite the fact that the room was a lot warmer than it had been outside.

Johnny sat down opposite him, watching him silently before he spoke out. "What do you want to eat then? And don't give me that 'I'm not hungry' bullshit."

Chris opened his mouth, but then shot daggers at Johnny. "Uhm. I..I dunno," he said, shrugging his skinny shoulders.

Johnny frowned once again, but got to his feet and proceeded to the counter. Shivering slightly as icy droplets ran down his neck. Though they quickly evaporated. He was a human radiator.

A few minutes later, he returned to the table, Chris looking up at him in quiet complaisance.

"Two Big Macs," Johnny said happily, smirking as he placed the meal in front of the boy.

"Are you sure that I ca-"

"Yes. Eat it," Johnny cut through him, already starting to devour his French fries.

For the next five minutes, the two ate their meals silently. One vastly quicker than the other. Shortly after they had both finished, Johnny eyed the boy up.

"So, why were you out there?" He asked bluntly.  
Chris looked up at him and smirked –a trait that matched even Johnny's- broadly. "Why were you?"

It seems the meal had returned some of his teenage sarcasm.

"After all, you are _The_ Human Torch, right?"

Johnny looked down at the temple, repressing his obvious anger at the former title.

"I was," he said quietly. "Your turn."

Chris didn't point out that Johnny hadn't answered his question.

"I was just going for a walk," he said edgily.

"In a storm?"

"I was out before it started storming," Chris said quickly.

"It's been storming for the past three days," Johnny said, raising an eyebrow.

"I know," the boy said quietly.

"Wait. So, you've been out for the past three days? Shouldn't you be at home, with family?"

Chris stood up quickly. "I have to go. Thanks for the food, but I really should get going."

Without waiting for a reponse, Chris hurried towards the door, pushed through it and was lost in a spray of rain water.

Johnny gaped after him and followed, almost as quickly.

"Chris! Wait!" he shouted after him, lunging to grab the boy. Grabbing a handful of his own jacket, he pulled Chris towards him.

The boy span around, looking at Johnny with fear in his eyes. "Let me go!"  
"Let me help you," Johnny said firmly, not releasing his grip.

"I'm sorry," Chris said softly. With a quick gesture of his hands he pulled away.

Johnny briefly felt a red hot mark on his chest before he was blown backwards, the explosion that had spontaneously occurred on his torso hurtled him backwards into the wall of McDonalds. Luckily, his powers saved him from the worse of the force.

Before he blacked out he saw Chris, a look of horror on his face, flee.

- - -

Susie Storm and the new Reed Storm stumbled into their apartment, a tangle of kisses and fondling. Giggling, Sue turned on the lights, letting the man sprinkle butterfly kisses all over her neck. Her laughter quickly vanished as she caught the scent of burning. Reed looked up, frowning.

"Where's that coming from?" he asked blankly, looking around the apartment as if had only just noticed where he was.

"Over here!" Sue exclaimed, striding towards the deformed lump of rubber beside the window.

With a gasp, she realized what it was.

"Reed!"

"What?" Reed asked, looking from the charred rubber to his wife.

"It's Johnny. He's g-gone."

_To be continued._


	3. A fire relit

**Authors note: **

**Wow. Thanks for the reviews guys. That's the most I've ever had. ) And just as a warning, I'm making this plot up as I go, I just needed to write something. p So, there very well may be some plot holes. And for that I apologise, feel free to email me at if you would like to discuss anything, also, e-mail me if I don't update often enough. p **

**Hopefully you will enjoy the fic despite the small problems with it, but I'll do my best. Anyways, enough of my jabbering. On with the story! **

Everything burns 

Chapter 3

"Oh my god, is he okay?"  
"I dunno, look at that bloody hole in his chest!"

"Is that, is that _The Human Torch!"_

"It is!"  
"I hope he's okay!"

Johnny's eyes fluttered open, optics adjusted to the darkness around him, partly caused by nausea and pain. The increasing crowd of gatherers gasped as he came back to consciousness. Part of him registered that the worse of the storm had returned, and it had started bucketing down again.

_Fucking storm_, Johnny found himself absently thought.

One of the braver people in the crowd, presumably, stepped forward and offered Johnny his hand. Johnny smiled slightly, pained but a smile none-the-less. He took the offer gladly, and the combined effort got Johnny leant against the wall of McDonalds, not the best place to be 'attacked', admittedly.

"Thanks," Johnny said in a croaky voice, glancing down at his chest with a grimace. The black top he had been wearing was in shreds, particularly around the centre of his chest.

A circular gash was imprinted into his flesh, blood – but not as much as you might've thought – had already seeped out. Johnny also noted that some of the flesh, and his shirt, was charred. _My good shirt, damnit!_

Although, his obvious resistance to fire and all things hot had saved him from the worse of the attack.

_Attack? Why the hell would Chris attack him? _

And then he remembered.

"Chris!" Johnny said aloud.

The man that had helped Johnny up looked at him quizzically. "Dude, are you okay?"  
Johnny didn't register his voice, his – oh so quick – mind had already began formulating a plan to find Chris. A complex and extremely difficult plan. Hardly.

Johnny was going to go back to the apartment. (Despite the fact that the Fantastic Fucking Three would be there) He was going to go to the computer and, of course, locate the signal of his, you guessed it, jacket. What 'superhero' didn't have a signature for a tracking computer to find? Johnny didn't need one on his person at all times, because a simple heat sweep could keep track of the Human Torch. But, for reasons unknown to Johnny, Reed had given him a tracking device. …Johnny kept it in his wallet.

_Now to find Chris. _Johnny gave the man a small smile and made his way through the crowd, one hand clutching his chest. He'd find Chris whether it killed him. He had his bloody wallet.

_Awfully quick to find him, aren't you?_ A small voice in Johnny's head whispered. _The little shit nearly killed you._

Johnny shook his head, ridding himself of the voice. He had to find Chris.

Why?  
He had no idea.

Did he care about him?

No, impossible.

Right?

Hell, he was going to his former apartment just to find him. If that's not dedication, I don't know what is.

Johnny smirked.

**Authors note:**

Sorry that my chapters are a little short, but I usually write them in the evening. And I'm bloody tired now, so I'm gonna leave it there until tomorrow. Enjoy. 


	4. Heat Wave

Everything Burns

_Chapter4_

"**Everything burns **

**Everyone screams **

**Burning their lies **

**Burning my dreams **

**All of this faith **

**And all of this pain **

**Burning all down **

**Cause my anger reigns **

**Everything burns" **

"This is all your fault, Reed!" Susan Storm shouted, throwing her hands up in the air. "If you hadn't have told him tha-"

"Me!" Reed countered, gritting his teeth together. "If I remember correctly, and I do, it was **you** that told him he'd amount to nothing!"

Sue shot daggers at him, about to make a retort but Ben stepped in-between them.

"Listen, you two, if anything he left because we **all** ganged up and him and said things we probably…shouldn't have said," he said slowly, surprisingly calm. "There's no point in getting angry at each other. We've all done something we should be ashamed off," he finished quietly.

Sue let out a long sigh before collapsing on the apartment's sofa, her face in her hands. "You're right," she muttered between her fingers.

Reed stood awkwardly for a moment, for once he didn't know what to do. Looking defeated he sat down next to his wife, putting an arm around her and pulling her close.

"Shhh," he murmured. "Johnny'll be back soo-."

The door to the apartment opened with a bang and Johnny strode –masking his limp- in. The 3 Fantastics looked at him in shock.

"Johnny!" Sue squealed, jumping up and bounding towards her brother, eyes widening as she noticed the very large wound on his chest. "What happened?" She stepped back, grimacing as a wave of heat hit her. Johnny had 'flamed on' just as she was about to hug him.

As the fire around his body dissipated, Sue noticed the large scowl on Johnny's face.

"J-Johnny?"

Johnny ignored her, pushing past her and making his way towards the computer at the far side of the apartment. As he passed Reed and Ben he gave them much the same treatment as his sister.

"Johnny? What're you doing?" Reed asked, rather impatiently, as Johnny logged onto the computer and began running a city wide scan.

Johnny didn't reply, he kept his eyes glued to the screen, smiling as a red blip appeared on the map. Thanks to Reed's high-tech computer, Johnny managed to print off a 'predicted path' of the computer's target, in this case; Chris.

Stuffing the results into his pocket, he crossed the room into his room – ex room- and grabbed a new shirt, pulling it on as Sue, Reed and Ben stared at him silently.

Without another word, he walked towards the apartment door.

He cursed loudly as he walked face first into a blue-ish wall of transparent force. Spinning around he glared at Sue.

"Take it down," he muttered.

Sue stood with her hands on her hips. "No, Johnny, I want you to tell me what the **hell** is going on! How did you injure yourself?"

"None of your business," Johnny said stiffly.

"Was it this person?"

Everyone turned to look at Reed who had been looking over Johnny's little research on the computer. "Did this person attack you!"

Johnny bit his bottom lip, he couldn't afford his 'family' to find Chris. Especially not if they thought he was some sort of enemy.

HE clenched his fist, generating a handful of flames. Before anyone could react, Johnny flung them at the computer terminal. Reed jumped back in time as the computer gave out a pained whirring as it exploded in a shower of sparks.

Once again, everyone looked at Johnny in awe.

"Johnny if you don't tell me what happened I'll…" Sue spoke out, stepping towards her brother.

"Don't threaten me, Sue," He growled back. "Now let me out."

"Not until you tell me what's going on!"

Johnny cursed again, rapidly he flamed on and threw out a rather nasty heat wave. The force of it knocked Sue back, and Johnny seized the opportunity to escape as Sue's force field had vanished.

Everyone stared at the door slammed shut.

Johnny had walked out. Again.

Sue looked at Reed in a defeated way, but frowned as she noticed she was smiling.

In his hand were several sheets of paper.

Sue's eyes widened. "You…?"

"I printed them off before Mr. Hothead over there lashed out," Reed said arrogantly.

Ben, who had stayed quiet all this time, smiled widely.

"Let's find this guy," he said, staring at the map.


End file.
